依托《2063年议程》等发展规划，越来越多的非洲国家正在通过各种联盟组织达成区域合作伙伴关系，以促进本国的工业化进程，确保非洲大陆以稳步、团结的姿态共同走向繁荣
文I 昌达 赞比亚《每日邮报》公关顾问 翻译I 李丛
每年的5月25日是非洲日，这一纪念日的设立肯定了早期非洲各国团结一心抵抗殖民统治所付出的努力。
非洲发展状况
当其他国家由于世界经济衰落而纷纷将重心转向国内市场时，多数非洲国家却在为稳定经济发展成果而积极寻求合作。毕竟非洲经济已经达到了5%的年度平均增长率，被认为是促进全球经济复苏的新动能。
在过去的几个世纪里，富饶的自然和矿产资源为非洲大陆带来了殖民统治及战争。如今，工业化的进程在加速，非洲面临的新问题是亟需完善基础设施的配套建设。这种需求也促成了新形式的泛非主义。
非洲正在逐渐摆脱一个受困于贫穷、战争及疾病的“黑暗大陆”的标签。各国都在加快步伐采取经济改革，为带领12亿人口走向繁荣而共同奋斗。
越来越多的非洲国家正在通过各种联盟组织开展跨境合作或达成区域合作伙伴关系，以促进本国的工业化进程。
世界经济论坛的全球竞争力及风险评估小组在其发布的《2017非洲竞争力报告》中着重指出，区域融合及战略融资对非洲工业化的发展起到了至关重要的作用。
报告显示，近年来，非洲各国已经在教育、儿童死亡率及孕妇保健等联合国千年发展目标涉及的大部分领域取得了明显的进展。在过去10年中，平均来看，非洲的卫生及基础教育指数增长了12%。这主要得益于大大降低的婴儿死亡率（从83%降到47%），结核病发病率（从每10万人406起降到313起）以及增长的小学入学率（从76%升到83.5%）。
得益于优化的市场竞争体制及关税缩减，非洲商品市场的效率也有所提升。举例来说，通过削减对创业公司的行政审批手续（减少47%）并在过去10年里逐渐将利润税减半，非洲的本土竞争强度（一项评测商业运营状况的指数），上涨了13%。
非洲的科技指标在过去10年也取得了显著提升。但是由于同时期内世界各国也都在大力发展信息通信技术，非洲同世界其他国家相比在该领域的差距有所扩大。同样，由于在高等教育、基础设施及机构建设等方面进展缓慢，非洲在这些领域的竞争力相较其他国家依然面临很大差距。
同时，世经论坛的竞争力报告也指出，全球大宗商品价格的下滑给非洲的宏观经济环境带来了很大压力。价格的下降影响了金融业，使已成下滑趋势的整个非洲金融市场发展指数进一步走低。
当地时间2017年5月3日，世界经济论坛非洲峰会在德班开幕，南非总统祖马在峰会开幕前接受记者采访（ 东方IC）
非洲各国间的合作
最近一篇由美国Devex新闻网记者克里斯汀·罗比撰写的报道指出，“非洲发展新伙伴计划”（以下简称NEPAD）协调机构正努力为各国牵线搭桥，通过打造贸易走廊或跨境陆路运输网来提升以往非洲大陆内低效的贸易模式。
为此，NEPAD将主要解决物流运输涉及的一些问题，比如关税及其它一些相关规则的设定，并于2016年发布了“推动非洲”倡议以加强各国间的协调。作为非洲联盟的执行机构，NEPAD主要与一些区域经济组织合作，挑选合适的项目予以支持。
Devex的报道指出，比起强调某一个国家，非洲更应从区域经济的角度考虑其发展道路。
NEPAD今年会主要扶持三个项目以促进区域经济，即南——北贸易走廊（南非至坦桑尼亚）、中部经济走廊（坦桑尼亚至布隆迪）以及阿比让——拉各斯贸易走廊（科特迪瓦至尼日利亚）。阿比让至达喀尔（科特迪瓦到塞内加尔）贸易走廊项目的建设也将会在近期被提上日程。
近日，世界经济论坛非洲峰会在南非召开。与会者就领导力、停滞不前的经济状况及下降的就业率等问题展开了交流。越来越多的非洲国家希望加强彼此间的沟通对话找到解决方案，这一现象有力地证明了泛非运动的复苏。
就像20世纪60年代时的非洲领导人一样，参加论坛的意见领袖们再次强调要为年轻人创造一个充满希望的未来。与会者们在各场分会中就如何加大对8亿年轻人的投资来推动非洲发展展开了充分的讨论。
在其它主要经济体即将在接下来的几十年里面对生产力短缺的困境时，年轻人是非洲目前最强大的资源。
“非洲日”在时刻提醒着这片土地上的人民要团结一心，抵抗任何形式的束缚。
非洲的工业化进程越来越依靠外部资金，这也使人们开始担心海外投资和贷款会不会成为新的殖民形势。然而依托《2063年议程》等发展规划，各国也在通过协商和达成伙伴关系等手段逐步制定本国的发展计划，已确保非洲大陆以稳步、团结的姿态共同走向繁荣。
African Day: Celebrating a new Pan-African movement
By Mwazipeza Chanda, Communications Consultant at Zambia Daily Mail
Africa Day, is also known as AfricaLiberation Day, celebrated on May 25 takes recognition of the unified effortsof previous leaders to agitate for emancipation from colonial masters.
Development in Africa
While the rest of the world is turninginward in the face of the falling global economy, many African nations haveseen the need to establish links for ensured prosperity.
On average, Africa's economy has seen 5%annual growth and has been recognized as a new engine for global economicrevival.
The continent's vast natural and mineralresources have been a source of conflict for decades but in recent years agradual move towards industrialization has been embraced and with it a growingneed to bridge infrastructure gaps – a new form of Pan-Africanism.
Breaking away from the tag of a 'DarkContinent' filled with poverty, war and disease – African countries are fastbeginning to adopt economic reforms that will see a joint push for prosperityfor the 1.2 billion citizens.
Through various regional groupings moreeconomic blocs are pursuing cross border and regional partnerships to achieveindustrialization.
The Africa Competitiveness Report 2017, aspecial project within the framework of the World Economic Forum's GlobalCompetitiveness and Risks Team has noted heavily how regional integration andstrategic financing is playing a role in ensuring the industrialization of thecontinent.
In recent year's Africa has improved themost areas covered by the Millennium Development Goals, such as education,child mortality and maternal health. On average Africa has improved itsperformance on health and primary education by more than 12 percent over thepast decade. This has been driven mainly by much lower infant mortality (from83 to 47 percent), lower incidence of tuberculosis (from 406 to 313 cases per100,000 population), and higher enrollment in primary school (from 76 percentto 83.5 percent).
Africa has also improved the efficiency ofits goods markets, especially through better competition and lower tariffs andtaxes.
For example, the rating of businessexecutives of local competition intensity has increased by 13 percent, alsofacilitated by less administrative red tape to start a business (reduced by 47percent), and the average taxation of profits has almost halved in 10 years.
Technological readiness has also gainedconsiderable ground in the last 10 years, yet -because most countries haveexpanded their ICT capabilities much more than Africa has in this period – thetechnological gap has widened. Similarly, improvements in higher education,infrastructure, and institutions have been too small to reduce Africa'scompetitiveness gaps in these areas.
The World Economic Forum Competitivenessreport further states that the global reduction of commodity prices in the pasttwo years has weakened the macro-economic environment of most Africancountries; this price drop has also negatively affected the financial sector,contributing to reduce the already declining regional performance in financialmarket development.
Cooperation among African countries
According to a recent article by ChristinRoby published by DEVEX – The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)is hoping to play a dominant role in strengthening ties between Africancountries that would boost traditionally low levels of intra-African trade byfocusing on trade corridors, or transit cross-border road networks.
NEPAD, as the agency is more commonlyknown, plans to achieve its goals by tackling logistical transport concernssuch as issues of tariff setting, duties and regulations, and harmonizationthrough the Move Africa initiative, which was launched in 2016. NEPAD, thetechnical body of the African Union, works specifically with regional economiccommunities in Africa to select projects and programs to support.
According to Roby, in terms ofdevelopmental approaches, Africa cannot be country specific anymore, butinstead take a regional dimension.
NEPAD's focus on regional tradefacilitation will primarily target three corridors this year, including theNorth-South corridor (South Africa to Tanzania), the Central corridor (Tanzaniato Burundi) and the Abidjan-Lagos corridor (Nigeria to Ivory Coast). There isalso an ambition to have the Abidjan to Dakar (Ivory Coast to Senegal) corridoralso come on board in the near future.
In recent weeks, the 2017 World EconomicForum for Africa was held in South Africa where issues around politicalleadership, stagnating economies and falling employment levels were raised – the fact that more African countries aremore willing to dialogue and contribute towards finding solutions amongstthemselves gives testament to the resurgence of the Pan-African movement.
Similar to the 1960s, emphasis has againbeen placed on realizing a promising future for the youth of Africa. Severaleconomic conferences have been held to brainstorm around tapping into the 800million strong youth population.
The youth are currently, Africa's greatestresource – as other large economies will face challenges in productivity incoming decades.
African Day serves as a reminder tocitizens to ensure that they move as a united force to protect againstenslavement of any form.
The push for industrialization has seengrowing dependence on external financing which in turn raises debate aboutneo-colonialism in the form of foreign investment and loan financing.
However, through programmes such as theAgenda 2063, national development plans are being drawn up through processes ofconsultation and partnerships across the African country to ensure a uniformand progressive approach to the continent's drive to prosperity.